Bicentenary of the Crossing of the Blue Mountains Exhibition

The travelling exhibition about the first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 has moved to Katoomba Library today.

Come along and see this spectacular display.

The exhibition is at Katoomba Library 17-28 June before going to Lithgow Library from 1-31 July.

Katoomba Library Book Club

What are you reading now? Once in a while we have a show-and-tell of our current reading.

Here’s a summary from our June meeting.

Laurel has been enjoying Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson. It’s set on San Piedro Island, located off the coast of mainland Washington in the Pacific Northwest of USA; a Japanese-American fisherman named Kabuo Miyamoto goes on trial for the murder of Carl Heine, a well-liked local fisherman and respected war veteran. Laurel was interested in the stark difference between the Japanese and the white American response to this crisis situation. The Japanese culture insists on respect for an authority greater than the individual, the white Americans by contrast were individualist, not group-oriented. The issue of race prejudice, and how it plays out, was also there in this story.

Pam has been reading Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking, by Susan Cain: a reflection on how the dominant culture conditions whether we become introverts or extraverts. There’s a quiz in the book to do too: are you introvert or extravert?

Anne has been reading The Secret River by Kate Grenville; and That Eye the Sky, an early novel of Tim Winton’s. She enjoyed Winton’s vivid language, and his ability to show us the heart of a person, a landscape, a situation.

Shirley has been reading David Malouf’s Ransom. Priam, aged King of Troy, goes to his enemy, Achilles, to ask for the body of his son, Hector. The book is based on a story from Homer’s The Iliad, 8th century BC. Shirley’s also enjoying Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel.

Di has been reading a first novel, Past the Shallows by Australian writer Favel Parrett. There’s strong characterisation here, and an ability to conjure landscape. This title will turn up in our reading list for 2014.

Alan has been reading Voltaire’s Candide, for the fourth time. Candide attacks the passivity inspired by Leibniz’s philosophy of optimism. First published in 1759, it satirises the view that “this is the best of all possible worlds”. Voltaire’s fearless satire got him into some political hot water.

Alex read Leo Tolstoy’s The Cossacks on her Kindle. It’s set in The Caucasus; its main character decided he wanted to go and live amongst the Cossacks for a time. Alex enjoyed his observations of nature, and his bouts of introspection.

Barbara has been reading Willa Cather: a life saved up by Hermione Lee, an Oxford academic: and Sarah Dunant’s Blood and Beauty, about the Borgia family in Renaissance Italy.

Nick has been reading Love and Vertigo by Hsu-Ming Teo. It’s Teo’s first novel, published in 2000; it’s about Grace Teh and her family growing up in Malaysia. He’s also very much enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby, that seminal American novel by F Scott Fitzgerald, recently made into a movie.

Alison has been reading Shaun Micallef’s Preincarnate: a novella (wryly funny); and Giulia Giuffre’s A Writing Life: Interviews with Australian Women Writers, in which she records conversations with the older writing generation, eg. Kylie Tennant, Christina Stead, Eleanor Dark. She has also read Mary-Rose MacColl’s In Falling Snow. This absorbing story took her to a Cistercian abbey north of Paris, converted to a hospital (Royaumont) to treat soldiers wounded in the terrible trenches of the Somme, in the later years of World War I. Alison scurried to an atlas to check how close Royaumont was to the battlefronts on the Somme and further east, and was horrified anew at the torments suffered by front-line soldiers in that war.

Bicentenary of the Crossing of the Blue Mountains Exhibition

The first European crossing of the Blue Mountains has earned its place in our national history. Without it, it is doubtful that European settlement would have survived.

Prior to 1813 many unsuccessful attempts were made to cross the Blue Mountains.  However, success finally came when, on 11 May 1813, explorers Gregory Blaxland, Lieutenant William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth and their support party left Blaxland’s farm at South Creek near St Marys and arrived at Mount Blaxland in the Kanimbla Valley on 31 May 1813.

Last year Penrith, Blue Mountains and Lithgow Libraries were successful in gaining grant funding from the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities to help celebrate this event by creating a travelling exhibition. 

The travelling exhibition includes images of historical documents, pictorial items and artefacts to tell the story of the first European crossing of the Blue Mountains and its significance to both the indigenous population and the colonial history of NSW. 

The exhibition is at Springwood Library from 3-14  June then will be on display at Katoomba Library 17-28 June before going to Lithgow Library from 1-31 July.

National Simultaneous Storytime TODAY @ 10:30am

National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual campaign that aims to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books. Now in its 13th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant and FUN event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy using an Australian children’s book that explores age appropriate themes and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Grades 1 to 6. The title for 2013 is “The Wrong Book” by Nick Bland which is about Nicholas Ickle who is trying to tell a story, but keeps getting interupted by characters from other stories.

Mark O’Flynn @ Katoomba Library

Local author and poet Mark O’Flynn is coming to Katoomba Library on Saturday 15th June, from 2pm.
Mark will be chatting about his latest book, False Start: A memoir of things best forgotten. This is a laugh-out-loud biography that recollects Mark’s journey to find his purpose in life. From being forced into work as a completely unqualified quarry sample tester, to trying his hand at acting, to an unsuccessful search for religion, Mark cheerfully describes his incredible adventures with a self-deprecating tone that encourages you to laugh along with him. As Diane Dempsey from the Sydney Morning Herald said, “That O’Flynn finally settled for a life of a writer seems to be an eminently sensible choice, given his nicely judged sense of humour and agile turn of phrase. And complete hopelessness at anything else.”

Come along to hear Mark speak, followed by afternoon tea. Our partners, Megalong Books, will be selling copies of the book on the day, and Mark will be available for book signing.
This is a free event, bookings are appreciated.
For further information, or to register your interest, contact Katoomba Library on 4780 5750.

National Simultaneous Storytime 2013

National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual campaign that aims to encourage more young Australians to read and enjoy books. Now in its 13th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant and FUN event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy using an Australian children’s book that explores age appropriate themes and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Grades 1 to 6. The title for 2013 is “The Wrong Book”  by Nick Bland which is about Nicholas Ickle who is trying to tell a story, but keeps getting interupted by characters from other stories.